Gatwick ranked as worst airport for delays
Gatwick has been ranked as the worst in the country for passenger delays.
A new delay-monitoring website www.ukairportdelays found that passengers using the airport were suffering from average delays of as much as three-quarters of an hour to get through security and half-an-hour to pass through immigration on their return.
The website, set up by independent travel agency Travel Counsellors, called for travellers to voice the facts about badly managed UK airports so the results can be gathered and provided to pressurise airports and political authorities to make changes.
More than 170 people have posted complaints and over 7,000 unique visitors have visited the site to check out the latest delays from local airports.
Stansted ranked as the second worst airport in the country with check-in times of more than half-an-hour and average security delays of almost 40 minutes.
Third worst was Heathrow, followed by Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Southampton.
Travel Counsellors chairman David Speakman, who set up the lobbying site, said: “Despite this summer’s outcry about airport standards, I’m livid that airports are still continuing to treat travellers with such disdain.
“The airports have a 27-point list of performance standards they are supposed to uphold for airlines.
“But BAA has had the audacity to ask for this set of standards to be put on hold for the opening of Terminal 5. With that lack of accountability passengers are going to be left completely in the lurch and we need to complain hard and fast now to stop this happening.
“To make a difference we need to know from travellers the reality of what they are facing. I’ll take this information to politicians and airport authorities and will campaign hard to make a difference.”
Ten worst ranking UK airports:
Airport
Check-in (waiting time)
Security (waiting time)
Immigration
(waiting time)
1 (longest)
Gatwick
23 mins
44 mins
34 mins
2
Stansted
35 mins
38 mins
16 mins
3
Heathrow
33mins
28 mins
11 mins
4
Manchester
36 mins
28 mins
7 mins
5
Leeds Bradford
40 mins
8 mins
9 mins
6
Southampton
33 mins
7 mins
12 mins
7
Luton
3 mins
6 mins
20 mins
8
East Midlands
14 mins
9 mins
5 mins
9
Liverpool
14 mins
9 mins
4 mins
10
Bristol
9 mins
8 mins
2 mins
Source: www.ukairportdelays.co.uk at August 13 2007. Top six highlighted have average delays of more than 15 minutes in each category.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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